Isabella Home for Aged Women

October 1941

You must look closely as the shadow distorts.

solid brick construction, red face brick on the exterior with cement trim, wood double-hung windows, pitch and gravel roofing,
2 stories, 183.5 x 115 feet plus 2 bays, 21103 Square feet but then it says three sections, 8672.5 square feet.

My first job when I was 16 was here.

The Drawing Room was a huge room with murals painted on the walls with a grand piano. It was hardly ever used.

Off the main entrance was a Grand Staircase, wide and circular. The grand ladies always paraded down these stairs as if arriving for dinner at Tara in Gone With the Wind.

There were five tables in the Dining Hall. One large circular table where the most prominent ladies sat with the Head Nurse in full white uniform and nurse's cap. Miss Lilly who was the youngest at 65; Miss Ralston who insisted on golden toast; Mrs. Dean who smoked and was the last lady to arrive before it closed.
 

The table closest to the kitchen was where the genteel ladies sat. Miss Holt, the daughter of a minister who had been a seamstress and the former housekeeper who had saved all her money so she could retire there. They had to come down the back stairs and the former housekeeper would just scuttle in at the last moment. No other ladies would talk to her.  The genteel ladies lived in the rooms above the nursing wing. They had their own little coffee room above the sun room where they gathered. Their stairs went straight down and ended right in front of the elevator. They would stand there until ever other woman had entered, then they followed.

Once a lady was sent to the nursing wing she was as good as dead. No still healthy woman would visit a friend in the nursing wing.

The employees entered into the back door that led past the pantry and cooler into the kitchen. The back stairs led down to the basement where we had a locker room. The nurse had a room and Al Blayenboom, the janitor, had a room. He used the garage where he parked his car that he only drove on Sunday. Every Saturday night he would wash it by hand and then park it back in the garage. He lived there and we had to feed him on weekends but he would do NO work after sundown on Saturday. When the funeral homes would deliver flowers on the weekend, he just left them downstairs to die.

 Carol Schlinz was hired first and when they asked her if she had a friend, she gave them my name. So then I was hired. We were mainly kitchen aides. We worked 4-7 pm weekdays and 7-11 am , 4-7pm on weekends. Sometimes we would work 8 to 4 and got to make salads. Carrot and Raisin Salad was the hardest. We had to hand grate the carrots which was a lot of work and the salad didn't taste that good. We set the table, served the food, cleared the tables, washed the dishes, then washed the pots and pans. We then cleaned up the whole kitchen and were the last ones to leave.

The head cook was in charge. Beulah, age 80, was a great baker. Carol, raised Catholic, thought she was overly strict. I, who was raised Dutch Reform, thought she was perfectly normal. Her assistant was Ruth who could really cook meat. Roasts! I'd never seen a roast in my life much left eaten one. We got to eat the leftovers.

The other kitchen aides included Lena Werkema, age 70, a widow for the second time. She lived on Merrifield SE and was a bundle of fun. Another was Geraldine Spencer age 60, a spinster who had lived with her mother in the family home on Ionia Ave SW.. She was MEAN. Thelma Oldenburger was too old to really do much. She just sort of dithered. She always asked me to pull the roasts out of the oven. The other women said I shouldn't help her as she was using me. Well, she physically couldn't pull the roaster pans out of the oven and I could, easily. So I did.  (Now I'm Thelma and I couldn't pull out even a little pan if my life depended on it.) Stella worked 7-11 only and on every Friday when we had fish and coleslaw, she made the pies, from scratch. That's all she did. Every Friday we had a different kind.

During the summer, we would fill in for others on vacation. I worked in housekeeping under Darnell who could not read or write so I co-signed her paychecks for her so she could cash them. When I dusted, I had to work really hard searching the corners looking for dust. While I vacuumed, I read a book. Her assistant, Annie, had a chip on her shoulder and was most unpleasant all the time. A Geraldine Spencer in the making. I would work the laundry. I had to iron napkins!

Geraldine Spencer coming in the back door into the kitchen.

Ruth, Darnell, Carol Schlinz, Annie in the dining room.

City Assessors:

It shows Al's garage where he kept his car that he only drove on Sundays. The Open Porch was the rear entrance to the kitchen.

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Last modified: 08/05/11